Archives For new music

Wait, what? Are you telling me Faye Wong smiles in pictures? [1]

Faye Wong graced the October cover (in three versions) of Elle China for the 26th Anniversary, with a photoshoot by Chen Man. She’s always glorious when shot by Chen Man.

faye-wong-elle-china-oct2014-chen-man

You can check more of the photos and a brief (Chinese) interview with Faye at the Polysh. I tried the Elle website, but it’s not happening for me.

She also has two new songs out this year [1][2].

Only ONE of them can make it to my list. I need translations of the songs for that. At the moment, Fleet of Time is winning… mainly because I liked translating the title with such nostalgia feelings. lol

— EDIT Nov 7 —

Better quality photos at Fashnberry.

Seo Taiji’s been busy this past week with the release of both versions of Sogyeok-dong (소격동) [IU Version][Seo Taiji Version], and now here’s the much awaited teaser for Christmalo.win (크리스말로윈), which will be his 9th album.

And it will release the same day as Marit Larsen’s 4th album!

So much music~

I discovered Fifi Rong on the Xiami compilation, and though her track Parting Life (在离别中生活) isn’t my favorite, I did start to pay attention. So I’m all eager to listen to her new material now, which is available everywhere from Xiami, iTunes, Bandcamp and Soundcloud~

[bandcamp width=580 height=340 album=3479289225 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]

My favorite tracks are Wishes’ Fault, and there’s a certain haunting attraction to Breathless. LOL

Let’s see what comes off it by the end of the year~

Not exactly new talent, but just discovered~

Jamyang Dolma (降央卓玛) is a Chinese singer, though I’m sure people would identify as Tibetan (for the obvious folk roots in her music, as well), who has been featured on CCTV programming. I’m pretty sure she would identify as Chinese or Chinese Tibet, otherwise she wouldn’t be featured on the channel. She’s also done her music school at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music [1], where all the famous people in the industry have studied… including famed Super Girl Chris Lee [1][2] ;P

And lately Chen Bing [1].

I just sorta fell in love with that song That Day (那一天), which is included on this 2014 album called Golden Calling II (金色的呼唤 II), which you can preview on Xiami, while some of her stuff is also available on iTunes.

I felt kinda okay-ish when the song was leaked a couple of weeks ago, but now I kinda have started to really like it. Marit Larsen’s I Don’t Want to Talk About It shall be included in Marit’s 4th full-length studio album titled When the Morning Comes [1].

I wonder if it will be available in Amazon. I think it’d be sad to discontinue my Marit album collection, even though -according to my records- I’ve shifted 99% of my music activities to stream and downloads. With a record of just one physical album released in 2013 (which was a special gift I got).

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I think I could work more on the 2013 list, but then it will be 2015! LOL I also hate that I don’t have my font pack at hand because this graphic is UHHHH-GLAY. My Frankenstein Computer is back! I’m so happy~

Anyway, here are 30 album picks by all different artists that released (almost) full-length albums these last two years. And here are all their covers in gallery form, and here’s a Facebook Gallery, it contains some playlists and iTunes links. And here’s a Xiami playlist, where you can (almost) access all the albums. And a Weibo post in case you’re there.

And here’s the YAM Magazine list that contains all my ramblings, with playlist/streaming and buy links.

Not so much ‘big vocal chops’ as ‘lyricist to watch out for,’ but Laura Marling’s voice is lovely nonetheless. This is a lovely medley she did for WNYC with -probably- the strongest segment in her album Once I Was an Eagle; Take the Night Off, I Was an Eagle, You Know and Breathe.

She’s a 24-year-old from the UK… and this is hardly ‘new talent’ as she’s on her 4th album already. She’s 4 or 5 years younger than Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and 2 years younger than Rihanna.

Whatever happened to the US music industry?

xiami-xun-guang-ji-seeking-light-collection

Xiami had been pimping a new project they had going on for the last couple of days, and they’ve just revealed that it’s a 2-disc compilation featuring Chinese-Taiwan-UK Beijing-based indie artists. It’s a pretty good set that I’ve freely translated as the Seeking Light Compilation (寻光集, Xun Guang Ji) or in Español- Colección Buscando la Luz.

See, this is what happens when you have no official ‘christian’ name.

Check my English and Español announcements for translated group names and songs. Looking forward to exploring everyone’s discography.

You can get the album on Xiami.

We got a triple FIGHT!

It was the second half of 2003 when I was listening to La Ley quite non-stop, since it was only one of the handful CDs that I had taken to Canada, when my friend grabbed my headphones and told me, “Do you know l’Arc en Ciel? It sounds exactly like him, but in not-Japanese.” I’d always kept that at the back of my mind until today when I found this new Indian band called Sanam, and had a similar thought.

Of course, l’Arc en Ciel has over twenty years of history already, so it’s an obvious imbalanced fight. Though I do kinda chuckle whenever people refer to lead vocalist Hyde as a “chibi” person, as well as measuring other people as “one hyde and one inch tall” LOL

Note: Also love how the fans sing as a prelude.

Of course, if La Ley hadn’t decided to split mid-noughties, they’d have a couple of years into l’Arc en Ciel, and the image that I have of Beto Cuevas wouldn’t be so quite embarrassing.
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I don’t know how exactly this happened, but A-Mei’s just released her latest album (16th? since R U Watching?) brilliantly titled Faces of Paranoia Only the Paranoid Survive (Faces of Paranoia for short, or 偏執面).

And it’s on iTunes et all! Rejoice!

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